Irate mom wants trucks stopped
Christina Toth - staff reporter

Abbotsford mom Michelle Cook is ready to head into the road herself with a stop sign to divert gravel trucks off Marshall Road.

"You know, I've had it. There are 300 gravel trucks a day going past my house, and this is a residential street. I've called the police, I've called the mayor, I've called the city, but no one had done anything. They tell me just to hold on until the end of October, but it's not going to be the end of October," she said Wednesday.

Cook and her family live near the junction of Marshall and Lower Sumas Mountain roads. Gravel trucks are permitted to travel on Lower Sumas Mountain, but that route was closed recently due to construction.

Lower Sumas is reopened, but trucks continue using Marshall Road, through a residential neighbourhood and past a neighbourhood playground, Cook said.

"It's more convenient for them to go on Marshall because they don't have to stop. And they are so inconsiderate - they build up speed and just go flying past. They are going right up on the sidewalks," she said.

Cook fears that someone will get hurt, as children are dropped off by school buses and parents walk their kids to the playground. She has three small children and is uncomfortable taking them out to the playground, which is across the street. "It's like living in a prison," she said.

Abbotsford police Const. Casey Vinet said the department has received numerous complaints from residents about the trucks in recent weeks. No signs restrict the trucks but police are monitoring for speeding infractions. "We have been up there several times to conduct enforcement. We will be up there again," he said Thursday